Bona Fide Superstar: Cristopher Sánchez leads Phillies on Opening Day

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Tom mccarthney. Welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, Phillies win on opening Day, All is right in the world. They beat the Rangers five to three. Beautiful Thursday afternoon. Guys at Citizens Bank Park. Did he get the juices flowing? Just walk into the ballpark. We're going to talk Christopher Sanchez. Of course in a bit Alec Bohom justin Crawford, everything that happened on opening day.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: But you guys had.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: To have had fun being back at the yard yesterday.

00:00:34
Speaker 3: Great day. It's hard to believe that weather was March, but we'll take it. And the home team throws a five up there, five spot. I have to admit I was thinking a little bit about twenty three when they led the Texas Rangers five nothing on opening day and ended up squandering it. But they locked this one down. A little shaky at the end, but Christopher Sanchez on a couple of long balls. Fans were great, environment was great, the atmosphere was great. Can't wait to keep it going and see what this how this thing unfolds A.

00:01:08
Speaker 1: Great day across the board.

00:01:10
Speaker 4: As you guys said, Christopher Sanchez was just spectacular showing why he is an MVP candidate, one of the best pitchers in baseball.

00:01:19
Speaker 1: Super fired up. I think he punched.

00:01:21
Speaker 4: Out the last three guys and just walked off the mound, just pumped. I was happened to be sitting with my daughters at that time in the stands when he finished off that last hitter man and he was fired up.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: The fans are into it great, he was.

00:01:36
Speaker 2: You know, opening days. We were joking around on Thursday's show, a season preview show is a day for overreaction. But Kyle Schwarber kind of after the game kind of tried to put things in perspective a little bit, and I just wanted to get your thoughts on this here. He said that quote after the game was, I really do believe that we've got a pretty complete team here. And obviously there's going to be a course of one hundred sixty two that we're going to have to navigate.

00:01:59
Speaker 5: The will be ups and downs.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: You're not going to go one hundred and sixty to sixty one hundred sixty two and zero.

00:02:05
Speaker 5: But we all have the right mindsets here.

00:02:07
Speaker 2: And I think yesterday kind of for me anyway, kind of showed what the Phillies believe and kind of show what other people around baseball believe is that, you know, you look at these pieces and there's no reason to think they should not be there in some way, shape or form in October.

00:02:22
Speaker 5: Not saying they're going to win.

00:02:23
Speaker 2: The World Series, but they have as good a chance as anybody. Yesterday to me offered a little bit of a reminder of that.

00:02:31
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think we talk a lot about and rightfully so you have to give a complete accounting of the whole team. But I think we talk a lot about the collective age of the core and the star talent all getting into their mid thirties and the time is now, and high mileage team and whatnot. But then you look at two young studs Sanchez twenty nine, Lozardo twenty eight, two ascending talents in that starring rotation could really make this team very, very dangerous.

00:03:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you add Painter to that mix, and we don't know what we're gonna get out of Painter during the course of one hundred and sixty two games or you know, twenty.

00:03:09
Speaker 6: Five starts, whatever he does, but if they get some quality out of him, boy, that's three guys that are very young who have a chance to be good for a while and keep that window wide open.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So let's you know, let's let's jump right into to Christopher Sanchez. What a game by him, So he gets the gets the opening day start, first opening day start of his career, six scoreless innings, ten strikeouts, no walks. A couple things about this, So here's here's a little tweet from Paul Casella, my colleague, Paul Casella, Christopher Sanchez just the sixth pitcher ever to have ten strikeouts, no walks, six scoreless innings on opening day. The others, it's a group there that includes Mackenzie Gore last year versus the Phillies, Carlos Martinez, Jared Weaver, Chris Short, Philly's lefty Chris Short in nineteen sixty eight, and then Bob Gibson in nineteen sixty seven. So pretty pretty cool, and he was just absolutely fantastic. And then I want to I want to show you guys this quote. Year after the game, Jake Berger, Rangers first baseman, said, I think your favorite player, Jim's favorite.

00:04:25
Speaker 5: Jim loves a burger.

00:04:28
Speaker 2: I think we saw why he was a runner up in Cy Young last year. This changeup has the same shape and tightness to the ball as a sinker. He gets guys off balance really easy with that. Obviously he's an ace. And then Jake Berger says he's a bona fide superstar in the game, and he looked every bit like a superstar.

00:04:52
Speaker 7: That's a guy who got a couple of knocks off of him too, right, That's why he was like, that's why he said I had the superstar.

00:05:00
Speaker 3: But you know what amazes when this guy first came here. He's kind of a rock thrower. You look at some of his walk totals in the minor leagues, some seasons with some high walk totals. He doesn't walk anybody anymore. Like his last seven starts, going back to the last season, Uh, he's got four of them zero walks, including yesterday, and he's throwing that hard with a dizzying change up. He was like two pitches yesterday, fastball overpowering change up. Fabulous. The guy has just gotten better and better and better. And I mean his delivery is so sound and I think that's where the strikes come from. And he's got it. What remember everybody was when Curtis they traded him for Curtis Meat the minor league deal and then Curtis Mead got to the big leagues in a hurry.

00:05:46
Speaker 5: Right, and he was a huge prospect.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: He was big hitting prospects from Australia and he got to the big leagues quick. And he's like, ah, you know, Curtis meets in the big leagues and we got this guy who can't throw strikes. Takes time to judge a trade, takes time to judge of trade, and it takes a little bit of time on the development curve. And he's obviously got some really good mentorship from the people in the Phillies organization who've helped turn him into what he is. And he's very dedicated himself as a student of the craft, and he's an incredibly hard worker. And I think the best could still be yet to come. It has to be. I mean they believe it is because he just gave him that big contract. Reworking, restructuring or whatever you want to call it. But fun to watch.

00:06:30
Speaker 4: Just a couple of things about Christopher Sanchez, so we always know, we know that he pitches extremely well at home eighteen and eight in his career fifty eight games, forty forty nine games started.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: He's got a two point seventy.

00:06:44
Speaker 4: Five ERA opponent's batting averages two twenty two, and he's got an ops of six h three against.

00:06:52
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really dominant.

00:06:55
Speaker 4: The other thing that I that I will say about him is that, you know, they changed all of the heights on every player. So when he's first signed with Tampa Bay, he's probably around six feet six one, and so he had that height on him. Now they finally changed officially all the heights because MLB has changed them. You know, he grew extremely quickly as he grew through the Tampa Bay organization. He's still maybe growing in some ways, but it.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: Does take some time for players of that.

00:07:26
Speaker 4: Length and height to be able to master their bodies to the point where they can control them. And he was sort of a gangly guy when they first got him.

00:07:37
Speaker 1: Now he is way more athletic.

00:07:41
Speaker 4: He looks like he can command his body extremely well, and it does take some time to do that. He had the ingredients, and that's why, you know, for scouts, you got to give some love for the you know, to the Mike Andos and to the other scouts who were watching this guy. You know, you got to have to You have to sort of project sometimes, and they did. And you also got to give a lot of love to the player himself for being dedicated, and to the pitching folks, as you said to Jim. One other last note I wanted to make is that he his breaking ball is a different breaking ball.

00:08:16
Speaker 1: Now. It has some depth, some angle to it, and it's a little bit slower, a little bit. It's not like a cutter anymore. It actually has some spin to it. He's worked on that grip.

00:08:28
Speaker 4: If he gets that going, lights out, my friends, lights out, because you've got the best sinker, change up combination baseball, and he starts spinning that breaking ball more consistently, You look out, Ruben.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: You mentioned the pro scouting stuff when when they picked him up. I remember talking to Matt Clintac, who was the GM the night they made that trade, trying to get some information on this kid, and Clintac flat out said, this is a scouting trade. Our pro scouts, you know, loved what they saw of this kid's Butchell at the A ball level, the Tampa Bay Rays had a little bit of a roster issue, and based on our scouting reports, we decided to move on it. So you know, you've got to do a great job developing a player, but first you got to do a great job. I d in the player and the Phillies Pro Scouts did that.

00:09:17
Speaker 4: Hail to the scouts, man, old school, Hail to the freaking scouts.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: It's not an analytic move. This is a scout move.

00:09:25
Speaker 2: Absolutely, no, absolutely, and we will be right back.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: AJ.

00:09:29
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00:09:50
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00:10:12
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00:10:14
Speaker 2: Now, all right, we're back, So fifth inning. Yesterday, guys, Christopher Sanchez is dealing to Phillies have a two to zero lead. Kyle Schwarber hit that opposite field home run in the first inning.

00:10:28
Speaker 5: He's now got uh what is it?

00:10:31
Speaker 2: Three opening day home runs in five seasons. You can see another tweet from Paul Casella, most opening day home runs in Phillies history. Mike Schmidt with five, Schwarber's now tied with It's a pretty good group.

00:10:45
Speaker 10: Chuck hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, and Schmidt, Klein and Rolling and you might have another Hall of Famer should in Jimmy Rollins.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: Does Kyle Schwarber slide it?

00:10:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right, exactly right? So what a heck of a group right there. So it's two nothing fifth inning, Phillies have a couple runners on. You feel really good the way Sanchez is throwing, but it is just a two nothing lead, and anything can happen in baseball. And then Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper strike out back to back, and then Alec Boom comes up, cleanup hitter, clean up hitter. Alec Boom comes up, and it's an opposite field three run home run to give the Phillies a five nothing lead, and Jim, you talked to him. You wrote a great story today on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

00:11:42
Speaker 5: I wrote a little bit about him.

00:11:44
Speaker 2: I wrote a little bit about him in spring training, and he kind of said the same thing to me and you, Jim and in the spring, which is in his own words, I am not I know, I'm not a prototypical cleanup hitter. I get it, I'm not. But nice start for him, and he all so can be a he still can be a.

00:12:01
Speaker 5: Productive cleanup there.

00:12:02
Speaker 2: And he showed why yesterday an opening Day.

00:12:06
Speaker 3: That was a moment that was the moment of the game on an offensive scenario or from an offensive perspective. I mean, you get the rookie leads off with his second big league hit, the NL batting champ base hit. You know, the young guy and the veteran two men on base, just a to nothing lead. This is where you need to capitalize. And you know, Schwarber and Harper go down, they strike out, Harper chases up in the zone and now all of a sudden, you're looking at you know, one of those moments that have plagued the Phillies when they're going bad you know, especially in October where they just don't extend a potential rally. And this is a moment that begged for Alec Baum to do a lot of things, you know, be a cleanup man, produce runs, and pick up his teammates. And he did just that two to oh cutter up in the zone and he knew what to do with it, elevate it and hit it out. So it was a really big moment for him. And as he said after the game, my job there is to drive in runs. My job is to drive in just one of them, maybe two of them, and sometimes you get all of them, and he got all of them. Heck of that bat heck of a moment for the guy, just because of what the winter was like. He was just an unending trade rumor. I mean, he was very very close to not being here. If they get Boba Schett, they are burning the midnight oil finding him a landing spot Detroit, Seattle, maybe somewhere else, and he is not here. So he's back. He is. He doesn't take anything personal. He's all business, and he's a free agent at the end of the year, and he's building a free agent platform. Great way to start, great way to answer some critics that he's not a cleanup hitter. Uh, clean up. It has come in different sizes and shapes and forms and different ways of doing it, and he did it yesterday.

00:14:06
Speaker 10: Yeah.

00:14:06
Speaker 4: Think about where he's come from from I hate this happing place to to where he is now. And you got to respect the man for being able to handle things he's been, as you said, the trade rumors and for him to bounce back with the kind of attitude. We've talked about this a lot in spring training. Had a great spring. It's been playing terrific defense.

00:14:26
Speaker 11: I mean, first playout out of shoot, right right out of the shoot, man makes the play like it's nothing. He doesn't make that plays to play and and this is a this guy's become a good baseball player. Made a bold prediction on the on you know, on this show, and I made a bold prediction on NBC Sports Philadelphia about him being a top five votee getting votes in nl MVP.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's going to happen. It's super bold, but but I do hope for him that he on a number of different levels.

00:15:01
Speaker 4: Because you're going through some personal stuff that is sort of you know, reminds of what Ryan Howard had to go through in his career, and so that kind of sucks too. And you got to you got to give him some love for some mental endurance and perseverance.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: And I hope this guy has a great year and focus.

00:15:20
Speaker 3: Focus. I mean, you mentioned the personal issue. That stuff comes out during the game and you're like, whoa. I mean, it's all public information, right there was a lawsuit filed in Philly on Wednesday. It comes out. But his focus is amazing. After the game, he said, that's my personal business and I want to talk about it. It's fine, respect that, but I'll tell you what, it's got to be a heartbreaking. You know, you have the baseball player side on the personal side, and when you're jousting with your family, that that has to be heartbreaking.

00:15:53
Speaker 4: Let's we forget. Let's we forget a gentlemen. I'm sorry, less we forget. These are human beings.

00:16:00
Speaker 3: These are humans, you know.

00:16:03
Speaker 2: I remember Charlie Manuel saying that all the time when we talk about guys in slumps and men. I remember being in the dugout specifically in Milwaukee. I don't know why, randomly, but we were talking about some player who wasn't going well, and he said, hey, man, you don't know what's going on with this guy at home. He could have gotten into you know, got into an you know, had a bad cup of coffee. He could have gotten into a fight with his wife or his girlfriend, or got in an argument with the coach before the game, or you know, something could have happened business wise or personal wise or whatever. He's like, you never know what could be going on with this guy when he's in over eighteen slump or whatever or is you know, had a couple of bad starts in a row. So yeah, I was, you know, Alec Bohum has a lot of stuff going on, but he has he has showed that focus. And I want to mention this other interesting little comment from Kyle Schwarber alco Bowhm in that cleanup spot.

00:16:57
Speaker 5: He said, because I said.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: To him, you know, Kylelody, do you think he could be like a forty double twenty.

00:17:04
Speaker 5: Homer one hundred RBI guy. He doesn't have to be a forty home run guy.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: And he said, I don't want to ever feel like someone has to chase numbers. I feel like the way that he takes is at bats, His profile and his game. It plays for us, and it plays for a lot of teams. And I thought that was a great quote because that's him saying, like, we like Alec Boum. Even if not everybody likes Alc Baum, we like Alec Boum.

00:17:26
Speaker 10: And I thought that that's kind.

00:17:27
Speaker 2: That's why Kyle Schwarber is such a great leader, you know, I mean.

00:17:31
Speaker 5: It really is.

00:17:33
Speaker 3: He is a great leader. He's so inclusive and he knows the right thing to say. He's an impressive man.

00:17:38
Speaker 5: Yeah he is.

00:17:39
Speaker 2: And well let's talk justin Crawford d after these words.

00:17:42
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00:18:43
Speaker 2: All right, we're back justin Crawford. Nice little debut he gets.

00:18:50
Speaker 3: He also had a.

00:18:51
Speaker 5: Kind of a funny COI.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: He's like, well, I didn't want to go up there and waste any time goes up Their first pitchy season is major league career fastball from Nathan then ad Evaldi and hits a single up the middle for his first big league hit.

00:19:05
Speaker 5: That was a kind of a cool moment.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: Very cool. Yeah, kid's got some personality. He's got some personality. Before the game, he was talking Ruben about going to Skinny Joey's cheese Steaks, and yeah, he went to Skinny Joey's and he loved the cheese steak, but his mom was looking for a vegan cheese steak and that ain't happening at Skinny Joey's.

00:19:27
Speaker 4: I wonder if I actually hear Mike Eastler in his ear going you get that first pitch fastball, man, you whack it.

00:19:36
Speaker 7: And that's exactly what he did, man, And he stroked it right up the middle, beautiful swing, didn't try to do too much, punch it up the middle, and then did it again later on on a split fastball on a split Pretty impressive.

00:19:49
Speaker 2: Crawford was the first Phillies player to get hit in his first at bat of an opening day MLB debut since Denny Doyle April seventh, nineteen seventy first player, Yeah, Denny Doyle.

00:20:03
Speaker 3: Phillies fans. Philly's fans will remember Denny Doyle as a very young player. Larry bow Is double playmate in the early seventies. I remember him getting thrown out at home plate in the nineteen seventy five World Series for the Red Sox. Don Zimmer sent him and he got nailed at home plate by George Foster. And in the World Series the Red Sox, big, big red machine. That's what I remember him for.

00:20:33
Speaker 5: Traumatizing for Jim.

00:20:36
Speaker 3: Seventy five Red Sox. But Denny Doyle, Yeah, he.

00:20:39
Speaker 1: Wakes him up. It wakes him up at night.

00:20:43
Speaker 2: Jim wakes up with the cold sleds thing about Denny Doyle. Light, what a childhood could have been, what a childhood could have been. But yeah, it's a Crawford. Crawford a cool moment. He gets those two hits, and uh know, yeah, he seems he acts like a big leaguer. You know, he looks like a big leaguer. I don't know what the season is going to be for him, but nice little, nice little start for him. He said it felt like it weight was off his shoulders once he got to first base with that hit in the second ending, although he said it was a ten pound weight, which isn't very heavy, so I don't know if that means he wasn't feeling much fresher or not. But but you know, it's cool, cool to see him and he got the baseball. He says he's going to have some people fighting over it. He doesn't know if he's going to give to his mom or his dad. He said he's got a couple of grandmas that might want the ball. So, Ruben, what'd you do with your first ball from your first big league hit?

00:21:42
Speaker 12: So that's a great question, because I do not I have the bat, but I actually don't know where the ball is. I think my brother may have it, and frankly, I don't know what the hell happened to it, but I think my brother may have it.

00:21:59
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that that he does.

00:22:01
Speaker 4: I do have the bat in the Mimi I room there be behind me.

00:22:05
Speaker 13: But it was a pretty It was against Roberto who was a sinker ball that we had split guy who was a closer for the White Sox at.

00:22:16
Speaker 3: One time, Roberto Hernandez.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Roberto Hernandez from Berto Hernandez.

00:22:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, he sawed me off and I flipped it into the outfield.

00:22:27
Speaker 1: He had it through a heavy ball man.

00:22:28
Speaker 4: But yeah, sadly I got to track that baseball down.

00:22:34
Speaker 1: I do have the bat.

00:22:35
Speaker 5: At least that's good. That's good.

00:22:38
Speaker 2: But yeah, Crawford seemed to be pretty relaxed. He said, he slept well on Wednesday night. Jim you mentioned he went to go get go to Skinny Joey's. So he seems like he's comfortable.

00:22:48
Speaker 5: He said.

00:22:48
Speaker 2: He walked out to the outfield during the workout the other day, he said, just to get a feel of that.

00:22:52
Speaker 5: He said, he.

00:22:53
Speaker 2: Wanted to get a feel of the heartbeat of the ballpark.

00:22:56
Speaker 5: So he looked pretty comfortable. Yeah.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: Cool.

00:23:00
Speaker 5: It was a cool moment for him.

00:23:02
Speaker 2: So Phillies off on Friday. They get back to action on Saturday. Aaron Nola will make his season debut. That's gonna be a fun one. It's gonna be uh. I think everybody's gonna be watching that one closely, of course, because he had a really nice spring coming off the season that he had pitch really well in the World Baseball Classic.

00:23:21
Speaker 5: The Velo's up. The stuff looks better.

00:23:23
Speaker 2: It's gonna be chilly, though. And then Zach Wheeler is going to make a rehab start, his first rehab start on Saturday with the Iron Pigs in Lehigh Valley. And then Ryan Kirkering is going to follow him in pitch an inning. And I saw a Ryan in the clubhouse after the game, and I said, it ain't gonna be this warm on Saturday.

00:23:46
Speaker 5: Because it's not. It's gonna be a little chilly on Saturday.

00:23:49
Speaker 3: What are we talking? Saturday? What are we talking?

00:23:51
Speaker 5: I thought it was gonna be like the forties or something, but I.

00:23:54
Speaker 3: Think it's fifty degrees you a little breeze.

00:23:56
Speaker 1: Maybe, Yeah, it's gonna be chili.

00:24:00
Speaker 3: You need to start an early petition for the windows closed in the custbox?

00:24:07
Speaker 2: Are you sending a message to somebody?

00:24:08
Speaker 10: Now you're the veteran there, Jim, you're the veteran.

00:24:12
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm sending an early message in case maybe the uh, the media relations or baseball communications staff might be listening.

00:24:21
Speaker 10: Talk to Kevin Gregg and Chris Ware.

00:24:23
Speaker 1: Talk to Kevin and Chris maybe looking.

00:24:29
Speaker 2: There's one thing Ruben that Jim's hates more than anything, and that's wind.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: So hate wind.

00:24:34
Speaker 2: Yeah he hates yeah, exactly right, exactly Well that was an opening day Philly's win. All is right in the world. Nobody needs to overreact.

00:24:48
Speaker 3: That's right, nobody needs to overreact' gos.

00:24:52
Speaker 5: I'll tell you what. Go ahead, Go ahead, Jim.

00:24:56
Speaker 3: I remember one year of the in the like the eighties, the Red Sox they lost on opening Day, and the back page of the Boston Herald was, wait till next year.

00:25:08
Speaker 2: Well, I already know if they would have lost last night's Thursday's game, I already know what the criticism would have been. In an alternate universe, it would have been, how could they have taken Sanchez out after?

00:25:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, that would have been it. That would have been it ridiculous. But we don't have to think about it because they won.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: So as Alec Baum said after the game, you can't win them all if you don't win the first one. That's right.

00:25:38
Speaker 5: Phillies are on their way.

00:25:40
Speaker 2: All right, guys, We'll be back next week with more Philly Show smelling.

00:25:45
Speaker 3: Land of Boys, Nice Jim.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.